Your Extraordinary Kid!

Last Sunday morning in church when Apollo got a little restless, I dug into his diaper bag and grabbed a bag of Peanut M&Ms and handed them over. I noticed a few interested glances from the people sitting behind us. I can imagine their thoughts…In the past I would have been judgmental of any mom handing her toddler a bag of candy just to keep them quiet.

But now.

Do you have any idea what a milestone it is that he will simply eat M&Ms? For months and then years we struggled to get Apollo to eat. Every single bite was a battle. Every morning I woke up dreading trying to get food in his mouth. Every night I went to bed exhausted at the sheer effort. The doctors told us to supplement with formula, to nurse him more, to nurse him less, to feed him more solids. They told us he had allergies. The therapists said he was just “afraid to eat”. And all the while Apollo was hiding a birth defect; a heart that took a wrong turn only days after he was conceived. He couldn’t eat.

The summer of 2012, after having his g-tube placed, we rejoiced when he would nibble (for ten minutes) on a single M&M. Now, he requests them. What looked like a small moment of indulgent parenting was, for us, a milestone. A big one.

So many times in parenting, it is the little things that mean so much. One small interaction in church. Apollo doesn’t look sick. Even people we know often have no idea he is tube fed. We have a long, long way to go before Apollo reaches the point of eating like a typical child. But handing him a pack of M&M’s in church? It’s a tangible sign that we have made progress.

I made this short video for Apollo to show how I think he’s extraordinary.

Guess what? Your kid is extraordinary too! Stanford Children’s Health, the largest Bay Area health care provider focusing solely on expectant women and children, has made it easy for you to show how just extraordinary your child is. Whether your child has logged days and nights in the hospital like Apollo, or has never even been sick, your kid is extraordinary. Show them how much you enjoy every moment together by creating a special video of your own! And if you do, please, please share a link in the comments, I would love to watch them!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

I remember a certain barbeque where I was feeding Owen Doritos and gummy bears. Oh boy, the looks I got! I had one Mom ask if I ever tried to feed him anything healthy. Owen wasn’t allowed to even try to eat anything for over a year, gummy bears and Doritos a few months later were quite an achievement.